Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Alara Unbroken - Section 16

Rafiq breaks down the door of the shack and tells the people inside that he's not demon, that their worlds have merged and he's there to get them to safety. Levac has just one small request before that happens.

Jund

Ajani grabs one of the barbarian warriors by the throat. He has to do this to get Rakka to lead him to Nicol Bolas. The warrior tells him to do what he must, but he should know that she will not willingly leave his place unless Rakka or herself is dead. Ajani struggles with himself but in the end he directs his magical rage into a bolt of energy that destroys Rakka and not the warrior in his hands. The barbarian says she thought Rakka was his only chance, and he tells her he'll find another way.

Grixis

Rafiq, Levac, and Kaeda do a quick snatch and grab of zombie Vali amongst the undead horde. The zombies pursue them until they lose sight of our heroes.

Naya

Marisi's mind reels at the thought of all the evil he's caused throughout this life. The evils toward the nacatl, towards the elves, and towards his entire world. He just wants to live in glory once more, perhaps the nacatl will follow him into battle one more time. He approaches a small pride in the middle of the hadu, and just after they finish recounting the stories of the legendary Marisi, he steps out from the shadows and reveals himself to his people once more.

Jund

It's been days since Sarkhan began his attack on the forests. He hasn't met any true resistance until a burst of burning light shoots up at him from down below and pierces the neck of one of the other dragons. The dragon tries to breath fire back in retaliation but it bursts from the the hole in its neck instead and the dragon falls out of the sky. This display of magic is what he's been waiting for, and the death of a dragon is a good pretense to flee. He retreats just slow enough for the Nayan armies to follow.

Grixis

Salay berates Levac for not telling her about their son and allowing her to come up with a plan that would leave him behind, while Rafiq keels before the boy and begins to pray. It's a strong prayer to Asha that destroys every bit of corruption inside a person and Rafiq feels the strength of its power like he's never felt before.

It doesn't work.

Rafiq is distraught at his failure while Levac pleads that there must be a way to save him. Salay realizes the truth and accepts that her son is dead and cuts off the head of the zombie that was her son before anyone can do anything to stop her. Levac and Salay cry in each other's arms while Rafiq stares hopelessly at his failure.

Grixis Jund Frontier

Ajani and company look upon the rotting waste that is Grixis and how that world has joined with their own. Kresh yells out to his warriors that it has mountains, clouds, and beasts in the sky, that it's no different than Jund and the time for their final hunt has begun.

Grixis

Rafiq says it's time to move, now that the undead armies have past the shack, but the humans are still too scared to move. They tell him that Malfegor, the greatest of all demons, is the one that leads this army.

Wait... Malfegor? Malfegor? The same demon told about in their texts of Bant that the archangel Asha slew with her burning sword!? Oh that's no good. Word has to be sent ahead of the demon horde.

Naya

Marisi calls the final Wild Nacatl pride into his army, while Zaliki watches with a burning heart as she gains sway over them all. He declares that the war against the Cloud Nacatl must begin anew. Zaliki won't be a part of it and she runs up to Jazal's lair and gathers up all his notes and research and flees into the wilderness.

Bant

Aarsil comes to meet Mubin as his driver takes him through the gates of her castle. She introduces him to one of her advisors of the Order of the Skyward Eye and Mubin says he has a request. He needs to dig up the Twelve Trees of Valeron.

Naya

A Cloud Nacatl guard of the ancient city of Quasal halts Zaliki with a warning arrow. She calls out that she's alone and unarmed and has urgent news for them.

...Soon after...

Ambassador Banat and his adviser Ruki tell her that they'll give her the courtesy of a few minutes for being cooperative, but they are wary of her. She tells them that Marisi comes for them, and more specifically for the obelisk they control. They have a secret obelisk right? They say that might, but only if the Tower of Qasal, the symbol of Cloud Nacatl culture, counts as one. They tell her that if Marisi is coming like she says, and if he destroys it, their prophecies of the apocalypse will have come to pass.

* * *

Oh. The Obelisk of Naya

That's not uncovered yet? I actually forgot. Why was Nicol Bolas expecting the Maelstrom to be in full force when he knows the obelisk need to be activated to get the whole thing going? And Marisi has decided to attack it? I was kind of expecting him to try to redeem himself by leading the army to fight against foreign invaders, which would still help Nicol Bolas' plan because he doesn't care who live and who dies as long as massive amounts of magic were cast. I guess he's still just be too afraid of the dragon planeswalker.

There Is No Cure!

That's exactly what I was expecting. That whole storyline would have been so much more effective if there was actually hope that his son could come back. I suppose that Rafiq believed it was possible with his spell, but I never really thought it was going to come to pass. Related to this is the spell itself. It could have been served better if it had been shown to us in a previous section. I place some of the blame at the feet of the cramming so much story into a limited amount of pages. All this Grixis stuff is being affected the most. (Although nothing is untouched.)

2 comments:

Ajani neoplanwalker was my favorite so far, his two cards are great for me, and always liked beings half man-beast. Besides these two, my dearest colors in red-White Magic are even more when combined. But you can really see how revenge can be bad, after all these human Jund are charismatic and even noble, one would be caught Ajani to kill them by a promise of a woman has clearly taken as a traitor and now more than ever corrupted .

And once again apologize for my English, I'm good to understand and read but not write and speak.

From the outset I liked this woman, but this whole scene is very reminiscent of the zombie boy we see in various movies, and comics, all the same, trying to heal the party, be fooled into thinking that it is the same as before, and so on. And of course, the part where someone thinks a little and put an end this story. I was already perguntanto to time on this angel increasingly believe that they never really existed.